New statement casts doubt on key witness’ alibi in death-penalty retrial

After Samantha Williams’ mother and grandmother were stabbed to death in their Altamonte Springs trailer in 2004, Williams’ then-boyfriend vouched for her alibi, saying he and Williams were both fast asleep at his home the night of the killings.

The story by Williams’ boyfriend, Mark Van Sandt, was partially why authorities never considered her a suspect in the case. Her next-door neighbor, an immigrant prep cook named Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, was arrested, convicted and sentenced to die for the murders of Cheryl Williams and Carol Bareis.

In 2016, Aguirre-Jarquin’s conviction and sentence were overturned by the Florida Supreme Court after new evidence emerged, raising doubt to his role in the crime — including repeated confessions made by Williams and DNA evidence indicating her blood was at the scene.

And on Monday — in the midst of jury selection for Aguirre-Jarquin’s new trial — his lawyers provided a statement from Van Sandt’s current wife claiming Van Sandt had told her Williams left his home at some point during the night of the slayings

Van Sandt’s wife, Nicole Bouzigard, said in a sworn statement Van Sandt had told her Samantha Williams woke him up the night of the murders, saying she “had a bad feeling about her mother,” according to the affidavit.

Van Sandt recalled offering Williams a ride, but she insisted on taking a taxi and told Van Sandt to wake up early the next morning to pick up a load of laundry from Williams’ home, he told Bouzigard, according to her statement.

“Mark saw Samantha leave through the window of the bedroom where she and Mark had been sleeping that night,” Bouzigard said in the affidavit.

Aguirre-Jarquin’s lawyers have long accused Williams of being the true killer. She has not been charged with a crime in connection to the slayings. Van Sandt discovered the bodies the next morning.

“When [Bouzigard] told us, ‘Yeah, Mark saw Samantha crawl through his window on the night of the murder,’ I’d like to be able to tell the court we were shocked, but it’s only confirmed what we thought all along,” said Josh Dubin, one of Aguirre-Jarquin’s lawyers, after presenting the affidavit Monday.